Comments on: Sheer Idiocy

By: Unused and Probably Unusable

Unused and Probably Unusable — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 19:38:59 +0000

Update: Trial, a guest post, trial again

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. If you are a skydiver, however, we recommend you get it right on the first attempt, and every time thereafter.

The paucity in blog posts lately can be attributed to two main factors: a major…

By: Hank Dagny

Hank Dagny — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 02:31:42 +0000

No bigotry on my part whatsoever.
You are a liberal whiner - and a hypocrit.
Who would you have do surgery on you - a doctor speaking the King’s English clearly or someone speaking street jive or redneck slang, for that matter?
We speak English in this country.
Proper use of the language, along with a healthy vocabulary generally denotes some intellegence and/or education.
These are just facts of life. You wrote the blog, backtrack with your comments, and then insult me. Go figure.

By: dumpendebat

dumpendebat — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 20:19:40 +0000

And you can see, from the two comments before yours, what a receptive audience tools like Mike Reagan are appealing to.

As I said, reasonable people can disagree about the efficacy of these kind of school programs. It’s questionable whether they’re even needed in the first place; after all, school certainly isn’t the only place where people are exposed to standard English. (German-speaking children in places like Bavaria and Switzerland grow up speaking their local dialects (Bayrisch or Schwyzertuetsch) at home, and learn Hochdeutsch (i.e. standard German) at school without special programs, for instance.)

But Ebonics is one of those topics that simply cannot get a fair hearing, because of linguistic ignorance, misinformation, and good old-fashioned bigotry.

By: O

Sun, 14 Aug 2005 15:22:48 +0000

There are a few very interesting uses of alternative teaching methods in L.A. that hit on your point. The teachers use code-switching and various clever games to help predominantly Black and Latino kids learn “proper” English. PBS ran a special on one such program about a month ago.

I don’t believe these commentators are stupid enough to really believe schools want to teach kids Ebonics or Spanglish. They nevertheless choose to inflame the ignorant passions of the ill-informed. It’s shameless.

By: jimmy the greek

jimmy the greek — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 13:04:27 +0000

whats black, has six legs and says ho de do, ho de do, ho de do???

3 ni–ers running for an elavator

By: Hank Dagny

Hank Dagny — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:50:21 +0000

I know what you be.
You is an idiot.
Lemme axe you a question, yo?
Yuz jus laid down some jive bout some cracker. Word!
Is you a oreo or white chocolate?